Joule Ringer!

[John_Bedini]

Joule Ringer

Jbignes5,
Easy to do NPN Darlington , First, All collectors together, first transistor emitter to next transistors base, second transistors emitter to base of third transistor that is it. Then first transistor is the base B,
Collectors are all tied together so that is C, The emitter is also on last transistor E. Now, some like to put 10K Ohms from base of second transistor to emitter of second transistor but I do not think you need to do that yet. Wish I had the space to add a picture as I know it's worth a thousand words. see if you understand.
Maybe MK1 or someone else can post that if they have the room.
Darlington transistor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John B

[Matthew Jones]

Got it going

I finally got this thing running after 2 attempts. I used a 31,000 uf 25 v cap. I also used the d1960 transistor. I had one d2504 out of 4 cameras but I burned it up on my first attempt. Tried to get the voltage up. Turn out it was the CFL not letting power flow through. The tranformers do alot of arcing but I solved that by coating everything with super glue.

Video is not great cause its kinda dark and the bulb just barely flickers but....
YouTube - LSJR.MPG

Start playing with this thing....

@Jbignes5
Triple Darlington with 2n4401

Oh ya One more thing. Does anyone know the pinout on the d1960? I cannot find anything on it.

Cheers
Matt

[John_Bedini]

Joule Ringer

Thanks Mat for posting that.
JB

[mk1]

@Matthew Jones

Try a search for 2SD1960 .

[whacky0]

2SD1960 pin out

2SD1960 E,C,B left to right

[Matthew Jones]

@John...Your welcome

@MK1...Thanks, I guess I had a blond moment. The tranny actually has that number on it.

This is the Data sheet.
If it correct then it pinned out Emitter, Collector, Base from left to right looking at the flat side.

So to use the 4401 there will be a few changes to the wiring if anybody hasn't picked up on that yet.

Cheers
Matt

[ewizard]

Latest setup I'm trying a 2SC1096 tranny I had laying around and it doesn't last nearly as long at lighting but is brigter and I can't seem to blow it up like I was doing with the IRF640's. This one was running at 16.18 Khz starting out per the digital frequency counter but it drops as voltage on the cap goes down. I think it was still at around 12 Khz just before winking out.

[mikrovolt]

joule ringer effect

I observed in the video that the super cap did'nt work but the eCaps did.
Also I see the frequency drop and the voltage drop on the caps then by restoring the voltage the bulb lights brighter.

The caps are part of a resonant circuit that greatly helps the HV, a combination of two methods to ionize gas. the joule ringer effect sustains ionization longer and more efficiently than conventional
methods for lighting florescents.

possibly as the square of the distance, the inductor should be in close proximity to the gas. However I see that hand capacitance easily changes the frequency. Since the frequency is voltage dependent there is a range. It is the optimum frequency with the least HV that LS may have encountered.

[John_Bedini]

joeul ringer

Ewizard,
That is what I thought about 18Khz the device is going into cross conduction, bad news, it's overheating and then second emitter break down. You could try an old trick use an diode in the emitter. or make a totem pole arrangement by taking another device and arranging the emitter to the collector and bias the series arrangement on the first transistor or just make a Bata multiplier out of it will sop up 1/2 the vcc.
John B

Latest setup I'm trying a 2SC1096 tranny I had laying around and it doesn't last nearly as long at lighting but is brigter and I can't seem to blow it up like I was doing with the IRF640's. This one was running at 16.18 Khz starting out per the digital frequency counter but it drops as voltage on the cap goes down. I think it was still at around 12 Khz just before winking out.

[ewizard]

Ewizard,
That is what I thought about 18Khz the device is going into cross conduction, bad news, it's overheating and then second emitter break down. You could try an old trick use an diode in the emitter. or make a totem pole arrangement by taking another device and arranging the emitter to the collector and bias the series arrangement on the first transistor or just make a Bata multiplier out of it will sop up 1/2 the vcc.
John B

John, Thanks much for the suggestions and good to see you looking in on this interesting circuit. I just did a quick frequency check only on that one transistor but I'm curious now if they are all ringing around that frequency. I'm sure the coil may have some effect on the frequency also. IIRC I think Lasersaber said his was running at a higher frequency in the video. After a blast of trying a lot of things last night it seems I had figured the frequency was a lot higher also when I was using the scope. Lots of things to try with this and so far it's been a bit surprising what effects the brightness as well as run time.

[ibpointless2]

@lasersaber

You made mention in one of your videos (YouTube - Joule Ringer update + schematic.) @ 3:20, the captret effect. You touched the top of the capacitor and made it glow more and said that you think it might be draining the capacitors more. I've done some further testing on the captret and I think it might be doing the opposite, it might be charging the capacitors instead.

I've come to find out that when i have my meter hooked to a capacitor that has its + and - leads shorted out and my meters - connected to the - of the capacitor and my meters + connected to the case the voltage will go down, like people would expect, but when i touch the case with my finger like you did the voltage started to rise. At first i thought i was grounding it but touching my hot glue gun to it causes the voltage to rise too and so does blowing hot air on it too.

You could use the heat from your hand to charge up the capacitor and keep the joule ringer light going for as long you want without any battery. I'll be posting a youtube video soon of what i'm talking about on my channel soon (YouTube - ibpointless2's Channel) to give you a better understanding of what i mean. Basically capacitors are thermal couples and the heat from your hand could keep you joule ringer light running for a longer time.

[Lidmotor]

Joule Ringer replication running on 10v / 10,000uf caps

@ Lasersaber
This is my replication running on a bank of four 10v / 10,000uf electrolytic capacitors. This is as close as I can get to an exact replication of what you showed in your second video. I was going to mount the parts on a board but I was not happy with the light output nor run time. The CFL stayed on for about 3 minutes with a 9v charge up on the bank.

Anyway here is what it looked like:

YouTube - Joule Ringer running on 10v - 10,000uf caps.ASF

Cheers,

Lidmotor

P.S-----John B. --- Here is a link to an FL inverter project that I made (long ago) that uses a hand wound transformer made out of a ferrite rod. It is one of the "Talking Electroincs" projects with excellent instructions. The project was fun but the transformer I made had a bad tendency to arc out at the ends.
Fluorescent Inverter

[minoly]

floral wire

End of day Report:
End of an almost wasted day, I officially hate floral wire. Spent the better part of the day getting another fuji transistor as these work best so far. We can get it to run w/ others but the best light and run times come from that transistor. Wound up a floral / copper coil 100ft floral 24 awg 120 feet copper 31 awg all on a small 3PM spool. 25 minutes decent light no flicker using 3 germaniums no additional coil 9 volt start up. It flickered for another 20 minutes after that.
Moved everything around to get it all looking pretty for the camera turned it up w/ 12 volts and poof – Hasta la vista trany. While moving things around, I some how caused a short in the newly wound coil.
The good news, I was getting ready to cannibalize (unwind) the main coil that comes w/ the 3PM kit and I decided to just put it on as is. one power winding and the trigger. Works almost as well as the floral wound coil. Of course I’ll have to pick up another fuji to be sure…

[Jbignes5]

yeah if I am understanding it right.

Those transformers have some pretty hair like wires in them. I can see why they work so well.. Lost of surface area and resistance all in a small package. Do they handle higher voltages like 12 volts well?? If so I'll order one from the supplier that was referenced earlier.

Yes guys I found out what a triple Darlington is... I edited the message and apparently no one noticed lol. Thanks for the help on that though. I like your style of telling what it was. That was pretty easy to understand even more then what I looked for John_Bedini.

So what I am seeing is an feedback loop for the transistors?? Cascade feedback loop?

Thanks for the help everyone.

[xee2]

25 minutes decent light no flicker using 3 germaniums no additional coil 9 volt start up. It flickered for another 20 minutes after that.

That is some very good results. What was total capacitance you were using?